Hundreds of years ago, Europeans made a risky trip across the ocean in search of new lands and religious freedom. They found a beautiful continent that was already populated by Native Americans, who helped them build the foundation for the United States of America.
Our group has selected 12 important topics from this early time period in our country's history that we think you should know about. Hopefully this will help you understand our country's origin. We hope you enjoy!
Table of Contents:
- The Lost Colony of Roanoke
- The Mayflower
- The Thirteen Colonies
- Pilgrims and Puritans
- Thanksgiving
- The Wampanoag Tribe
- What Settlements Looked Like
- What People Ate
- The Salem Witch Trials
- Native Americans
- The Boston Tea Party
- The American Revolution
- Hornbook Activity
- Bibliography
1. THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
The Roanoke Colony was the first ever attempted settlement by the English in the Americas. It was located in what was then considered to be Virginia, but what in current times we would call North Carolina. It was not successful, and all of the Colonists who were left at the settlement disappeared under mysterious conditions. It is now known as the lost colony of Roanoke.
The first attempt to establish the colony was led by Sir Richard Grenville in the year 1585. He and 107 men arrived at Roanoke. Sir Grenville then left the settlement to return to England for supplies, leaving a man by the name of Ralph Lane in charge.
The men built the settlement but found it difficult to survive, they were constantly fighting with the Native Americans. So when Sir Francis Drake, an English Explorer, passed by the settlement and offered to take the men back to England, they happily agreed. When Sir Grenville arrived back at Roanoke not long after with the supplies, he found it abandoned. He decided then to leave a small group of men behind with the supplies and he too returned to England.
The second attempt to form the Colony of Roanoke began in the year 1587, led by John White. One hundred and fifteen colonists, this time a mixture of men, women, and children, arrived hoping to find the men left behind, but instead only found the remains of a human skeleton.
Despite the set, back they decided to continue with their plans and build the settlement. It was not long after this that the first birth to English parents in the Americas occurred. The child’s name was Virginia Dare.
Much like the first attempt at settling the colony, the colonists found it difficult. There was conflict Native Americans and they soon found they were ill-prepared to survive. John White decided to return to England for supplies and reinforcements soon after. The journey took three years due to the war with Spain and the Spanish Armada, and by the time John White returned to Roanoke all the Colonists had disappeared.
The only clue left behind was the letters CRO and CROATOAN carved into a tree. This was in reference to a nearby island, but John White was unable to explore it due to a bad storm. He headed back towards England and no one ever heard from the Colony again.
2. THE MAYFLOWER
The Mayflower set sail from England in 1620. It was charted by the Pilgrims, who were escaping England for religious freedom in the new colonies of America. It took over two months of sailing the Atlantic Ocean, but they eventually made it to Cape Cod in New England. They had originally planned to sail to Virginia, but rough sailing and storms blew them off course, so they settled in Cape Cod.
There were 102 passengers on board the ship, with 33 children aboard. It was 106 feet long and 25 feet wide, so it was a small sailing vessel for all of the passengers to share. When it was stormy out, the passengers went below deck, but it was crammed and dark. Many people became seasick. Food consisted of dried meats, fruits, and beans. The passengers, including children, drank beer. There was even a baby born on board the ship and they named him Oceanus Hopkins.
Since the ship had sailed so far off course, the new settlers had decided to set up their own form of self-governance. They drafted and signed what was called the Mayflower Compact. This was the first of its kind in the 13 colonies and completely different than what they had back in England and Europe with monarchy rule.
This compact agreed to set up fair and equal laws as well as a civil body politic amongst themselves. This compact was inspiring as well to our Founding Fathers. They used this idea some 150 years later when they wrote the Constitution.
At least three of our Presidents could trace their descendants back to the Mayflower. They are John Adams, James Garfield, and Zachary Taylor.
3. THE THIRTEEN COLONIES
The 13 colonies were founded along the Eastern shore of the United States. The names of the colonies were Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia.
These were founded by early settlers from Europe, mainly from England but there were also French, Spanish, and Dutch settlers. While England wanted to expand its territory and venture into America, the settlers were escaping England and Europe where it was very difficult to make a living as food shortages were rampant and jobs were scarce.
The first English settlement was Roanoke. By 1607, English settlers had built a settlement in Virginia and named it Jamestown.
New England settlements had been established by 1620 by Puritan separatists. They established the Plymouth colony. Many religious people were lured to the colonies because of religious tolerance. They were enticed by the freedoms that the colonies seemed to offer.
These colonies depended heavily upon the Native Americans, who had already been established in these lands for thousands of years, for agricultural and hunting assistance.
By 1700, there were an estimated 250,000 settlers from all over Europe who called the colonies home.
While many European settlers and Native American tribes were already established in the land, the King of England gave large plots of land to his brother and other allies. This, along with a war that England had with France and involved taxing the colonists, would eventually become a problem with the colonists and would later result in the Revolutionary War.
By 1776, the 13 colonies had declared themselves independent from Great Britain.
4. PILGRIMS AND PURITANS
Puritans were a Christian movement that focused on strict moral living as a way of demonstrating obedience to God. They began fleeing England in the 17th century so they could freely practice their religion. They founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629-1630.
Their movement started in the 16th century as a rebellion inside the state-sponsored Anglican church in England. They believed that the church should be guided by councils of elders, and not the bishops of the Anglican church. They also worried that the Anglican church was too similar to the Catholic church.
Puritans were among the many Protestants who fled England in the 17th century. Pilgrims are among that group, too.
Pilgrims were Protestants who believed, like the Puritans, that the Anglican church was too similar to the Catholic church. They wanted a simpler form of worship that was similar to how Christians worshiped in earlier times. They were also more radical than Puritans in their criticism of the Anglican church. Before they were called Pilgrims, they were referred to as "separatists." They founded the Plymouth colony.
While Puritans and Pilgrims are often talked about as if they are the same, it’s important to note that the two are different. Both groups founded Massachusetts colonies, but in terms of their beliefs the Pilgrims wanted to be separate from the Anglican church. They believed the church was beyond reform.
Puritans were less extreme, because they wanted to see the Anglican church reformed.
5. THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving is a national holiday that falls annually on the last Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving is a tradition that has been widely celebrated across America since the 1600s.
To give a brief history, a Native American tribe called the Wampanoag and a group of English colonists came together one day in 1621 to share a celebratory Autumn harvest feast that ended up spanning three whole days. This feast would have included an endless array of dishes, most likely prepared using traditional Native American cooking methods.
The exact foods that were indulged in that day is unconfirmed, however a typical Thanksgiving menu one would find in the modern day consists of a whole roasted turkey and side dishes such as mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, bread rolls, mac and cheese and pumpkin pie.
It was not until 1863 that Thanksgiving was officially declared a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln. Ever since then, Thanksgiving has been celebrated by Americans all across the nation. It is used as a way for family members from near and far to join together and enjoy each other’s company, talk about things that they are thankful for and enjoy the biggest feast of the year!
6. THE WAMPANOAG TRIBE
Here is some information about the Wampanoag tribe, which played an important role in the event known as Thanksgiving. They are referred to as People of the First Light. Their population was around 40,000 around the 1600s when settlers from Europe made their way to the colonies.
The Wampanoag had settled all along the eastern shore of the U.S. from Cape Cod to Rhode Island and had 67 villages throughout the land. They were skilled hunters, fishers, and gathers, and also cultivated and grew their own food such as corn. Each local tribe had its own chief who would oversee the day-to-day and protect their people.
One of the local tribes of the Wampanoag had direct contact with the people of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, and struck up a peace treaty with them. Samoset, an English-speaking Native American was able to build a relationship with the Pilgrims. He taught them how to grow corn and where the best places were to fish and hunt. Because of the kind act of the Wampanoag tribe teaching the Pilgrims how to survive in the early years in the new land, it has been recorded that they celebrated a bumper crop in 1621 to commemorate their relationship. We know celebrate the tribe's generosity on Thanksgiving day.
Unfortunately the European settlers brought diseases with them that the tribe had no immunity to. Scores of people from the tribe died, and many of their communities were left desolate.
Today there are around 4,000-5,000 Wampanoag members left who live in their ancestral land of the East Coast. They continue the tradition of their early ancestors with their ceremonies, their oral traditions and celebrations.
7. WHAT SETTLEMENTS LOOKED LIKE
While American history usually focuses on settlers from England, it’s true that there were settlers from many different countries who were present in America in the 17th century. The cultures from Native Americans, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and French settlers mixed together and created diverse fashion and architecture.
Common clothing: Clothing was usually an expression of class. Most clothing was simple and made out of ingredients like cotton, wool and linen.
Here are some modern replicas of what common people dressed like in some parts of the colonies:
Architecture: In the northern colonies, the first English settlers who arrived in America in the 1600s dug caves near riverbanks and covered them with tree limbs for roofs. In the middle and southern colonies, settlers built housing and communal structures based on models used by Native Americans.
After that, settlers started building log cabins by using wood from the plentiful forests surrounding them. When they had the materials, colonists in the north started building homes that looked like the types of homes you would see outside of London at the time. However, they had to make adaptations because of the hotter weather in New England, so they used thin pieces of wood to cover the structures that were less likely to rot.
Here is an example of a large home that was built in Massachusetts in 1683:
This is what it looks like inside that house:
Here are some more examples of large houses from the same time period:
Not all of the European settlers were from England, though. Here is a Swedish “log cabin”-type home:
In Massachusetts, the towns typically had a large communal meetinghouse where people would gather. Townspeople would come to these places for town meetings or religious meetings. This is what the inside of one looked like:
Town and city design: A lot of cities and towns were designed based on a grid layout. Here is an early blueprint of New Haven, Connecticut:
And here is a layout of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1682:
Others, like Boston, were designed in harmony with the geography of the land:
8. WHAT PEOPLE ATE
Settlers in all of the colonies relied heavily on deer as a food source when they first arrived in the 1600s. They collected honey from bees and ate sweet sap from maple trees (what we might call maple syrup). They depended on Native American knowledge to learn how to fish with minimal tools, and they fished in rivers and oceans. They also caught oysters.
But perhaps the most important part of their diet in the 1600s was corn. Native Americans had mastered the art of planting and cultivating corn long before Europeans arrived. So they taught the settlers how to plant this new grain, which the settlers called “Guinny wheat” or “Turkie wheat.” Native Americans also taught them how to process and cook the corn, and how to turn it into various dishes.
Some of the plates they made with corn include “suppawn,” which was a porridge blend of cornmeal and milk. “Samp” had the same ingredients, but with butter added. Corn meal could be baked with other ingredients to make maize cakes. Native Americans also taught the settlers how to roast or boil the corn ears.
Settlers also ate pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, and beans. Strawberries, huckleberries, blackberries and grapes grew in the wild. They planted apple trees, and turned the fruit into pies. They struggled to grow wheat, so they grew rye instead, and blended it with the cornmeal to make bread.
As tools and technology increased in the colonies, they also began to make dairy products, sausages and alcoholic beverages.
9. THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
The Salem Witch Trails began in January of the year 1692 when the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris became ill. A doctor by the name of William Griggs was called, and after looking at the young girl he offered his diagnosis of ‘Bewitchment.' He said the reason the young girl had become sick was because of witches doing the work of the devil.
This set in motion the deaths of 25 people: 19 of them were hanged, one man was pressed to death, and 5 others died in jail. Even a few dogs were accused of witchcraft and were killed.
There were many different factors that led people at the time to believe this idea of witches in their communities. The Puritans already feared the Devil. That combined with tensions with the Native Americans, as well as tensions with the English, and a small pox epidemic to create a lot of suspicion and fear. When young girls in Salem and the surrounding areas began to cry out names of ‘witches,’ the townspeople were quick to believe them.
Around this time the prisons were filled with over 150 people all accused of witchcraft, which was a crime punishable by death.
Those convicted of witchcraft were tried in The Court of Oyer and Terminer in June of 1692. The judge was Chief Justice William Stoughton. The first to be tried of witchcraft and hanged was a women by the name of Bridget Bishop, She had been accused, but not convicted, of witchcraft 12 years prior, and was an easy target for the courts. They did not have any physical evidence against her but instead relied on ‘spectral’ evidence— meaning only the accusers that could ‘see’ the invisible world of demons were relied on in court. This set the trend for the rest of the trials until the Court was disbanded in October of 1692 by the Governor at the time, and replaced with a Court that would not allow ‘spectral’ evidence.
Those still in jail were released and found their homes, reputations, and lives in shambles. The witch trials were over, but we still reflect on them, and see them as a tragedy even today.
10. NATIVE AMERICANS
Native Americans were the first known founders and inhabitants of American land, far before the European settlers showed up in the early 1600s. By the time the settlers arrived, there were already a number of different Native tribes living in America, namely the Wampanoag and the Powhatan.
The tribes were sufficient in making their own resources such as furs, bows and arrows and most importantly an abundance of food. When the English colonists came along, they also had some useful supplies, but ones that the Native Americans had not seen before, such as guns and rifles. As a result, the Native Americans and the colonists formed a relationship through the trading of these resources.
Unfortunately, it did not last long until conflicts arose.
As more and more English colonists began to arrive, the Native Americans noticed the unfair treatment they were receiving from them. The colonists completely disregarded and disrespected their land, livestock and crops and it was clear that they were no longer there for trading — they were there to steal their territory.
The Native American tribes fought long and hard to take their land back from the colonists, but they were ultimately outnumbered by the British who had a considerable amount of soldiers and much better weapons. This resulted in years of battle and bloodshed between the two groups, but ended in the massacre of the majority of the Native American population.
Sadly, not only did the colonists take their land, they took hundreds of thousands of lives along the way.
11. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773. It is an important incident in American history where protestors dressed as MoHawk Native Americans boarded ships owned by the East India Company. They then threw 342 chests filled with tea into the Boston Harbor, destroying all of them.
They did this as an act of defiance to the English monarchy in response to what they saw as unfair law practices, as well as the East India Company's monopoly on tea.
A few years earlier in 1767, the British Parliament passed the “Townshend Acts.” This allowed a raise in taxation of different products brought into the British Ports, including tea. This led to public outcry by the colonists and led to protests as well as a disregard for the Act. Namely, colonists would buy tea smuggled in by Dutch trading ships and not from the English.
This led to the Parliament repealing the Act for everything except tea in 1770. They did this to show the colonists that despite the colonists' protests that the monarchy still had the right to raise taxation without colony approval. This sparked tensions and led to a phrase that would become one of the important pillars of the United States Constitution, the idea of “No taxation without Representation”.
In 1773 Parliament passed another act called the “Tea Act." It was designed to help the East India Company which was struggling due to the colonists' continued disregard of the laws. This act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea market, as well as tax exemptions, and made it illegal to buy tea from anyone but the East India Company.
This angered the colonists. Some aligned with Samuel Addams and his Sons of Liberty. They refused ships at the harbor, cancelled existing orders, and refused to carry the product. The royal governor of the British North American Province of Massachusetts Bay, Thomas Hutchinson, attempted to maintain order and allowed three ships into the Boston Harbor: the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver.
On the night of December 16, 1773, under the cover of darkness, 60 men dressed as MoHawk Native Americans and cheered on by a large group of Bostonians (people from Boston, Massachusetts) boarded the ship and dumped the tea into the harbor. The estimated damage in current day US Currency is $1,7 million. Parliament's response was to create measures known in the colonies as the “Intolerable Acts” which increased British control over the colonists and pushed them closer to the Revolutionary War.
12. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The American Revolution was a long-lasting political and military battle between the British colonists of the 13 American colonies and the British monarchy. This war took place from 1765 until 1783. Conflicts arose when the North American colonists began to reject Great Britain’s motions to take over America with imperial rule.
The American Colonists, wanting independence from Great Britain, decided to form their own government by sending representatives from each colony to form the First Continental Congress. George Washington, a political figure who is famously known as the first President of the United States, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and on the fateful day of July 4th of 1776, Washington was among the many members of the First Continental Congress who were responsible for the most important document in American History— the Declaration of Independence.
Many battles were fought after the American government was formed through the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence was imposed. Ultimately, it was America that won the final battle against the British Army, who surrendered in the Battle of Yorktown. The colonists overthrew the authority of Great Britain and subsequently founded the United States of America.
HORNBOOK ACTIVITY
Let’s make a Hornbook like students did in Colonial America!
This was a study tool made by students. It would traditionally include engravings of the alphabet, numbers, and religious scripture in an effort to help the students learn! Below you will see a template to make your very own one of a kind hornbook.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Print out your Hornbook (see below).
- Cut out the Hornbook around the outline.
- Now decorate it! Please include a drawn picture of something you liked learning about in this presentation about Colonial America, and write a brief description in English about what it is and why you chose it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The bibliography for this project can be viewed here.